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Architecture, Engineering & Construction

Construction disputes often arise when delays, defects, cost overruns, or design responsibilities become matters of legal and financial consequence. We partner with litigation teams worldwide to turn construction complexity into courtroom clarity.

Build a stronger litigation strategy from the ground up.

Architecture, engineering, and construction disputes often involve competing interpretations of project schedules, design responsibilities, costs, site conditions, and professional standards of care. IMS helps clients secure the right expertise to evaluate complex technical and financial issues and present clear, defensible evidence.

Our teams support matters involving: 

  • Construction defect claims
  • Delay and disruption claims
  • Critical path method (CPM) scheduling disputes
  • Change order and cost overrun disputes
  • Mechanics' lien and bond/surety claims
  • Professional liability claims
  • Contract and design-build disputes

IMS has partnered with legal teams worldwide representing construction companies, contractors, developers, design professionals, insurers, and owners in high-stakes litigation and arbitration. We understand the unique issues facing each stakeholder and how to develop strategies grounded in technical, financial, and project-management evidence. Learn more below.

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Integrated Support at Every Stage: Architecture, Engineering & Construction Services

Architecture, engineering, and construction disputes often involve overlapping issues. IMS combines strategic advisory services, expert witness search, and litigation consulting solutions to support cohesive case strategies from initial assessment through verdict, award, or appeal.

Architecture, engineering, and construction disputes often involve overlapping issues of design responsibility, scheduling, causation, damages, and professional standards of care.

Whether the dispute involves defects, delays, scheduling, cost overruns, professional liability, or standard-of-care issues, our multidisciplinary teams help clients clarify responsibility, quantify damages, and present technical evidence effectively.

Featured Case Study: Lendlease Construction Inc. v. Circa 1200, et al.

The IMS trial graphics team delivered clear and compelling visuals to educate jurors about the construction process, the roles and responsibilities of the different parties, the design-change communication process, and how subcontractors were scheduled. Our custom expert search team also sourced multiple experts in commercial and residential development, contract terms, and metropolitan real estate asset management to support the case.

Read the study and see example graphics.

Featured

  • Expert Advisory & Analysis

    • Economics & Finance: Quantify delay damages, extended overhead and general conditions costs, cost-to-complete, lost profits, and change order valuation; model reasonable-value and royalty-style analyses in design-fee and licensing disputes; analyze opposing experts’ work for over/understated project losses 
    • Litigation Surveys & Rebuttals: Provide fame or awareness and secondary meaning surveys when a builder, developer, or architecture firm's brand or reputation is at issue in a dispute, as well as rebuttal analysis of opposing survey methodology 
    • Advertising Claim Substantiation: Evaluate marketing claims made by developers, contractors, or building product manufacturers when they are central to a fraud, misrepresentation, or consumer protection claim 
    • Marketing Research: Assess buyer or tenant perception and expectations in disputes over whether a completed project matched what was marketed or sold 
    • Statistics, Sampling & Econometrics: Build and defend the statistical sampling plans and damages models used in multi-unit construction defect claims, HOA litigation, and class actions involving repeated design or workmanship issues across a development 

  • Litigation Consulting

    • Strategy & Theme Development: Turn blueprints, RFIs, submittals, and daily logs into a single clear narrative that answers who was responsible, when the problem arose, and what it cost (the core questions in nearly every AEC dispute) 
    • Jury Research & Mock Trials: Test theories of defect, delay, and/or professional liability with mock jurors to surface which technical arguments land and which should be simplified or reframed 
    • Voir Dire & Jury Selection: Tailor voir dire questions to uncover bias and “de-select” jurors who may be unable to follow a multi-party technical case, instead defaulting to whichever party seems easiest to blame 
    • Trial Graphics & Multimedia: Build CPM schedule comparisons (as-planned vs. as-built), 3D building and site animations, cost-to-complete breakdowns, and defect-location exhibits that make technical evidence visually persuasive for decision-makers 
    • Presentation Technology: Ensure that schedules, drawings, and expert demonstratives are delivered seamlessly at trial, mediation, or arbitration hearings, including multi-week or multi-party proceedings with heavy documentary evidence 

  • Expert Witness Search

    • Technical Expert Witness Search: Source testifying and consulting experts in forensic and structural engineering, CPM scheduling and delay analysis, construction management, geotechnical and civil engineering, building envelope and roofing, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) systems, and architectural standard of care, matched to the specific defect, delay, or design issue in the case
    • Custom Expert Witness Search: Locate niche experts for less common issues, such as cost estimating, materials failure analysis, or specialty trade practices
    • Medical Expert Witness Search: Identify experts for jobsite injury and personal injury claims arising from a construction dispute, such as OSHA-related safety failures or equipment accidents

  • Medical Legal Experts

IMS is who many of us call first when a hard-to-find expert is needed.

Litigation Managing Partner, Am Law 100 Firm

Our discussions with the jury after the verdict revealed that IMS’s work had a major impact on how the jury viewed the case and it helped them to see the dispute from our client’s perspective.

Partner, Am Law 50 Firm

Case Studies

Related Industry Insights

FAQs

AEC litigation support is the combination of forensic engineering and construction expert witnesses, litigation consulting, and trial graphics that translate blueprints, project schedules, budgets, and building codes into a case a judge, jury, or arbitration panel can follow. Because construction disputes often turn on technical questions of critical path scheduling, standard of care, and causation, litigation teams rely on firms like IMS to test narratives early, find the right expert, and present the evidence with clarity and credibility at every stage of the dispute.

IMS’s AEC capabilities span construction defect claims, delay and disruption claims, critical path method (CPM) scheduling disputes, change order and cost overrun disputes, mechanics' lien and bond/surety claims, professional liability and standard-of-care claims against architects and engineers, and contract and design-build disputes across commercial, residential, industrial, and infrastructure projects.

Construction defect claims, delay and disruption claims, CPM scheduling disputes, change order and cost overrun disputes, mechanics' lien and bond/surety claims, professional liability and standard-of-care claims against architects and engineers, contract and design-build disputes, and jobsite personal injury claims.

Because the underlying facts, critical path schedules, standard of care, site conditions, and cost documentation are technical enough that a case can be won or lost on whether the fact-finder understands who was actually responsible for a delay, defect, or cost overrun. Specialized expert witnesses and litigation consultants translate that evidence into a clear, credible, and persuasive narrative.

Yes. IMS supports construction and engineering disputes in litigation, arbitration, and mediation across federal, state, and international forums, with forensic expert witness search, jury consulting, and trial graphics tailored to each forum.

Blue textured angles.

We bring a unique perspective based on decades of practical experience in 70,000+ cases spanning all industries.

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